Conventional centrifuges employ flexible mounting of the spindle and bowl in order to attain high rotational speeds and yet accommodate off-balance loading and critical speed vibrations. However, the flexible mounting introduces a separate problem: the very flexibility that accommodates the off-balance loading and spindle critical-speed vibrations causes the bowl to be easily displaced and avoid the action of the scraper blade and also results in a poor and variable alignment of the blade with the bowl wall. One solution to this problem is to rigidly but rotatably mount the spindle and bowl so that the scraper blade has a precision scraping action. The rigid spindle and bowl, however, limit the speed of rotation to below the spindle critical speeds, which causes the separation efficiency to suffer.